


I am no man

by smol_water_witch



Category: Trollhunters (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 23:44:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13669791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smol_water_witch/pseuds/smol_water_witch
Summary: What if Jim never found the amulet? What if Claire Nuñez found it instead?





	1. Chapter 1

Claire Nuñez awoke to the discomfort of an earbud remaining in her ear from the previous night, and a slight headache. She groaned and lifted her arms up into the air instinctively, for no apparent reason.   
Swiftly, she hauled herself into a sitting position and ignored the wave of exhaustion that overcame her. Claire prided herself on being strong and unstoppable, and tiredness was certainly not going to be the thing that beat her.

Her house was eerily silent for a moment before she glanced at her clock and realised what day it was, and how late she was. She groaned again and the house was suddenly filled with movement as she leaped into her daily outfit, fixed her hair and ran downstairs to grab a muffin for breakfast.  
You see, normally on a Monday morning Claire would be waking up at 7am to a household buzzing with life. She would go downstairs in her pyjamas and greet her parents and baby brother, whilst enjoying a hearty breakfast before receiving a ride to school from one of her parents.   
However, on that specific Monday morning, her parents were out at a meeting, and they had taken her brother along with them. So, instead of the usual, Claire was rushing around at 7am so that she could take the long walk to school and arrive on time to catch up with her girlfriends before lessons began.

She swiftly swung her bag over her shoulder and slammed the door behind her, racing down the street like an antelope (although perhaps not as graceful).

-

It seemed that the morning was full of surprises for Claire, since she unexpectedly found herself wandering down a pathway towards the Arcadia Canal.   
The journey had not taken her as long as expected - perhaps because she had speed-walked for most of the way - so she still had 40 minutes before she needed to be in school. Therefore, her heart, mind and entire soul seemed to have decided to force her to take the alternative route down the canal.

The pathway was slightly muddy and overgrown with brambles and bushes, yet she trampled on, almost enjoying the quaint sounds of nature surrounding her. Arcadia was not a nature-filled town, so it wasn't often that she had the opportunity to immerse herself in any kind of greenery. Perhaps it would be good for her. Perhaps that was why her being seemed to be pulling her on forward, begging her to move quicker.

Yet she still couldn't put her finger on just what emotion she was feeling, on just what her mind was thinking at that moment. She was being lulled forwards as if by some kind of invisible force, and she couldn't prevent it.

Eventually however, she reached the canal - a dry reservoir beneath a car-heavy bridge.

"Claire."

She jumped in shock.

"Claire."

She was definitely not imagining that. Something was calling her name. She shivered and turned slightly to her left, noticing a large pile of broken stone sat uncharacteristically on the floor.

Her feet moved of their own accord, one after the other towards the ominous pile.

A pile of stone can't talk to you Claire, get it together.

She wondered if waking up early really was the right choice, maybe she just needed more sleep.

"Claire."

She jumped yet again.

At the corner of her eye, she noticed a blue glint of light. She only noticed it for a second, but it was enough to get her to turn her head yet again to the pile of stone.

She found herself lifting a few singular slabs from the pile, uncovering something blue and bright.

A medallion? A coin? No.

An amulet.

-

Claire Nuñez prided herself on not only being strong and unstoppable, but being levelheaded and thoughtful.

That is why it was uncharacteristic for her to take the mysterious silver amulet which she had found underneath a bridge in a pile of rocks, of which she thought had talked to her, and place it in her bag.

-

Meanwhile, deep underground, six eyes blinked and a voice whispered.

"The amulet chose, a human?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is completely unplanned and a kind of guilty pleasure, but hey ho it exists now so hopefully u will like it anyway.

"I can't believe he would do that!"

Claire felt uncommonly out-of-place when she arrived at school. After her interesting morning, she really wasn't in the mindset to hear about her friend Mary's most recent breakup.

"I knoww," Mary sniffed and wiped her eyes for the millionth time.  
"You're too good for him, right Claire?" Claire's other friend, Darci announced.  
"Oh, oh, yes, of course."

Darci smiled emphatically at her. She cared about Mary's boyfriends just as little as Claire did, but she was their best friend and they just hoped that she would grow out of it eventually.  
Of course, Darci just assumed that Claire's distance that morning was down to that, but really her mind was buzzing with wonder and thought about the amulet.

Her original plan was to tell her girlfriends about it, but, somehow she had decided against it. Mary was a notorious gossiper, and the entire school was due to know about the amulet within 10 minutes. Darci however, was more than anxiety-prone, and she would immediately be off to tell a teacher or her parents about it, within seconds.

Claire really had no idea what the amulet was, or why she should be afraid of other people finding out about it. And yet she couldn't get the voice out of her head.

Claire..Claire...

Somehow it seemed to be pleading, even warning her not to do anything hasty.

After some long thinking through English, she finally made the decision to ask her History teacher about the amulet. Hopefully he would be able to lend her a hand.

-

Mr Strickler was a strange man. One which most people didn't like, actually.

Claire however, found some charm in his History lectures and old-fashioned teaching style. Although it was true, he was endlessly boring, she always noticed a mischievous glint in his eye, and a side smirk on his face.   
In fact, he was one of the only teachers of whom she could imagine having a real human life outside of school, somehow.

"Jim, would you agree with Herodotus' opinion on his tactics of war, as I have described?"

Claire smiled internally at his remark to her fellow classmate, Jim Lake.  
In actuality, she had planned to spend the lesson researching 'talking amulets' online, alongside doing her History work. However, she couldn't help but feel like someone was baring their eyes into the back of her head. And this wasn't an uncommon event.  
Jim Lake had a crush on Claire, I suppose you could say. He appeared to be a considerably clever boy, and yet his common sense and his ability to be subtle seemed to be even lower than that of the school's resident self-assured bully, Steve. (And that was saying something).

"Oh, uh...absolutely!"  
"Excellent, which tactics, specifically?"  
"The, uh...winning ones?"

Claire laughed out loud that time, mirroring the rest of the class whilst the bell rang. She packed her books away swiftly and prepared herself to face Strickler.

"Jim, may I have a word?"

Well, it seemed that Jim was destined to ruin more than one thing for Claire that day.

-

Her foot tapped on the floor subconsciously as she was aware of how late she was going to be for Biology. Jim had only been talking to Mr Strickler for a few minutes, but it seemed like an eternity.  
Finally, the door opened again and out came Jim.

"H-hey Claire! What lesson do you have now?"  
"I have Biology, I'm not in your class, and I'm waiting to talk to Mr Strickler so there's no point in asking to walk with me. Sorry, Jim."  
"O-okay, catch you around then," he said whilst walking backwards and almost knocking over a younger student.

She smirked to herself and tossed the amulet around in her hand anxiously. She just couldn't shake the echo of the voice from her head.

Claire....CLAIRE...

The memory seemed to be getting more and more apparent, the closer and closer she got to asking Strickler, as if her mind wanted her to keep it a secret. But why? Maybe Strickler could shine some light on why she was feeling so perplexed. Maybe it was some ancient amulet, cursing her to have anxiety for the rest of her life.

"Mr Strickler?"  
"Aah Ms Nuñez, have you come for another round of fifth century Greek history?"  
"Actually, I have a question to ask you, or rather, something to show you."

She slowly placed the amulet on his desk in front of him, and watched as his trademark smirk was replaced gradually with that of wide eyes and a troubled frown.

Claire...

"And what is this?"  
"That's what I was hoping you could tell me."  
"Where did you find it?"  
She mulled over the question for a second and decided to trust her gut instinct, "on the sidewalk."

He picked it up and tossed it round in his own hand, multiple emotions of bewilderment and uncertainty crossing over his face. The amulet appeared dim in colour as it reached his skin, although perhaps that was just Claire's eyes playing tricks.

"I'm afraid to say that this is nothing of any significance, Claire. A costume piece, at best. You see this blue light is caused by a series of mirror effects, and this is easily fake silver, nickel perhaps. Unfortunately you won't be making any profit off this, if you were expecting to?"  
"Oh no, I just thought...I just thought, it was pretty."  
"Well, I am happy to take it off your hands if you don't want to be troubled with it, although it isn't of any historical or economic significance, it could look ravishing amongst my own collection?"  
"Actually Mr Strickler, I think I want to keep hold of it. You never know, it could be a good prop for one of my drama performances."

That was a lie. She would have done anything to get rid of the burden of the amulet, of which had been bothering her all day. But, she just couldn't let go of it somehow, despite it having no apparent significance.

Claire...Claire....

"Well then," his normal smirk returned and passed the amulet back to Claire, "don't blame me if you are late to your next lesson Ms Nuñez, or your teacher will have my head."

She smiled at him as she took back the amulet, "I'd never dream of it."

-

Claire struggled through the rest of the day. She even messed up her lines in drama class, reminding her that she was in reality (even if she felt like she was dreaming). She had more important things to be worrying about than a silly costume amulet - like the school performance of Romeo and Juliet.

Even so, whilst she sat with her friends in gym class, she could hardly focus on the video that Darcy was sharing on her phone, despite having told herself over and over again to stay calm and remember that this was real life now. She could return to worrying over the amulet when she got home.

"Buenas noches."

Ah yes, if anything was going to remind her that she wasn't in a dream, it was going to be Jim Lake.

"You speak Spanish?" she asked condescendingly, almost annoyed that he had interrupted her and her friends, despite her not paying attention to them herself anyway.

"Uh...um...um, I just wanted to apologise for earlier."

The shrill bell rung all of a sudden, going right through Claire and making her shiver.

"Come on Claire," Darcy beckoned as they all began to leave the gymnasium.

Jim stood like a lemon, looking up-mostly upset as her friends all laughed at him. She almost felt sorry for him. Imagine, she felt sorry for the guy who always made her feel so uncomfortable in every lesson they shared with each other. At least he was trying to apologise.

"Do you like Shakespeare?"  
"What?"  
"Do you like Shakespeare?"  
"Shakespeare?"  
"The school play. We're having trouble getting boys to audition. You don't need to apologise to me but we - I would appreciate it if you gave it a try."  
"Oh! Uh,"

She didn't wait for a response, and simply left him with a smile.

Hey, at least that got her mind off the amulet for a few minutes.

-

Blue light surrounded the room as Claire tossed the amulet back and forth in her hands. She was sat, alone, on her sofa with her mind full of questions and no answers. How on earth could a few mirrors inside the amulet cause such striking blue light? It didn't seem to make sense. The more that she mused it over, the more Strickler's speech seemed strange. His shocked expression didn't match up with the words that came from his mouth, and his offer to take it from her? It all just seemed strange to her, as if she was being kept in the dark from some big secret.  
"Come on! I know you were talking to me before, just say something again!' she yelled at the amulet, shaking it back and forth, "and now...I'm talking to an inanimate object...great, I really am going crazy."

Suddenly, she heard clattering outside and almost jumped out of her seat.  
"What on earth..."  
She walked to her back door - still grasping the amulet - and unlocked it slowly.   
Throwing the door open, she took a fighting stance and prepared to take on any raccoons or foxes that pounced on her. Yet, there was nothing.  
She sighed, "now I'm hearing things in my own home."

She closed the door and stood in the darkness of her kitchen for a second, staring down at the bright glow of the amulet once again.

Tick.

The cogs on the amulet shifted.

Within a mere 10 seconds, Claire's life was plunged into insanity.

Click.

Her back door opened - she had forgotten to lock it.

Clunk.

The amulet hit the floor, as she dropped it in shock.

Scream.

This was all her mind could think of, and yet her vocal chords were frozen like ice, unable to create the shrill noise.

"Master Claire!"


	3. Chapter 3

~~~~

The entirety of Claire's body froze up as her vision begun to turn cloudy.

"Master Claire!"

She gasped and suddenly adrenaline kicked in, causing her to turn a full spiral of the room whilst backing out towards the living room.

"Who's there?"

Light streamed into the kitchen through the window and doors, and yet it still seemed so pitch black to her. And something was lurking in that deep dark nothingness.  
All of a sudden, she backed into something...something big and cold and stone. Something that wasn't normally in her kitchen.

She was just about to prepare herself to turn around, when something appeared in front of her. Six eyes. Glowing amongst the darkness. Six eyes blinking and alive. Her legs almost gave up on her until she was suddenly swept into the air, legs first.

In the blink of an eye (or six eyes) she was upside down, swinging in mid air with her legs clasped by some sort of stone grasp.

She screamed. Finally.

"Blinky, she looks scared," a voice boomed out from the side of her.  
"Uh, Aaarrrgghh, my good fellow, would you mind?" another voice called out.

Claire's mind was racing, and she wished that her vision would clear so she would at least see what was going on in front of her. Blood was quickly rushing to her head and her breathing was getting uncontrollable.

"P-p-please, put me down."

Swiftly, she was turned the right way around and dropped onto her feet. Somehow she managed to keep her balance, before being patted on the head by something heavy and large, yet still gentle.

"Master Claire! We have found you! I am known as Blinky."

Finally, Claire managed to take deep breaths to clear her vision enough to look up to where the eyes had appeared before.

There, stood a large creature made completely of a blue-toned stone. It had six eyes and four arms and wore clothes and had hair and giant teeth, and yet was nothing like a human.

She had to be dreaming.

Backing up once more, she walked into whatever was behind her again. She swivelled around to see another stone creature. This one even larger, humongous even. It was grey with a moss-like material growing all over its back.

"Hi," it waved a giant hand at her, "its Aaarrrgghh. Three Rs."

She started to hyperventilate again as she continued to whip her head back and forth between the creatures, unable to comprehend what was happening. Her mouth couldn't create words and she almost fainted again before 'Blinky' spoke once more.

"Master Claire, you have been chosen," it repeated, "the amulet of daylight challenges you to ascend to the most sacred of offices."

"Orifices? What orifices?" 'Aaarrrgghh' spoke from behind her. His voice was loud and booming, but almost soothing and calm.

"Offices. It means responsibility," Blinky responded, slightly irritated.

Claire couldn't believe what was happening. Two...things had appeared in her kitchen and she was stood in the middle of a petty squabble between them.

"Unbeknownst to your kind, there is a secret world, a vast civilisation of trolls lurking beneath your feet, hidden from view."

Trolls? What kind of Shakespeare-induced dream was she having? It was almost as if she had been reading Romeo and Juliet every single night in order to memorise every line for the school performance.

"It is now your charge to protect them. For you, Master Claire, are the Trollhunter."

"Trollhunter!" Aaarrrgghh announced from behind her.

Claire opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water (which was exactly what she was) and tried to form words to respond with.

And then she fainted.

-

She awoke just before sunset, covered with a blanket. Her dad was sat next to her with a hot mug of tea, her brother was crying furiously and her mother was treading back and forth, biting her nails anxiously.

"What's going on?"

"Claire! Oh thank goodness you're okay."

It wasn't often that Claire got to hear her mother fussing over her, so she knew something was wrong.

"What happened?" she rubbed her head, felt a small bump on the side and flinched.

"You don't remember? We just got home and found you on the kitchen floor mija. Can you remember anything?" her dad asked her whilst passing her the mug.

All at once, the memories from a few hours earlier came flooding back.

The amulet.

"I think maybe...I opened the back door because I heard raccoons."

Her parents exchanged a look.

"You were attacked by...raccoons?"

"I don't know..."

"You have been working too hard recently Claire, perhaps it was stress?" her mother nodded her head as if validating the idea.   
"Maybe it's best that you head to bed," her father remarked.

Claire nodded, all she wanted was to be warm and calm in her bed, but she knew that wouldn't happen.

"Oh and Claire, this was on the counter, is it for school?" her mother asked as she handed her the amulet.

She breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't lost it.

"Yes it's for...Romeo and Juliet."

-

Claire wept silently in her room, in the dark whilst laying flat on her bed. Her mind hadn't stopped churning all day and it had finally exploded out on her.

Had she imagined Blinky and Aaarrrgghh? Was she going crazy? No, she couldn't be. She had always prided herself in her sanity and calm. Why would that change so suddenly?  
But...if that was true, that meant that the trolls were real, and the amulet wasn't just a prop. Which meant that...she was the 'trollhunter'.

Trollhunter

She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down, and stared at the amulet again. It seemed to shine right at her, willing her on, telling her that it was going to be okay.

Exhausted, she held it to her chest and slept dreamlessly through the night.

-

The next day, Claire felt strangely calm. Her school day was normal, and luckily she didn't have History until the end of the week, so she didn't even have to look in Strickler's direction until she had worked out why she felt so wrong about him.

That evening, she clambered underneath her bed and pulled out the amulet; she had hidden it in a small box, tucked in the furthest corner of her room.

"Hello?" she gently shouted into the darkness. Her parents were out (yet again) and she was beginning to wonder how they were allowed to take Enrique to so many meetings with them. So, there she was, alone in her garden clasping a small glowing piece of metal like a lifeline. She had hoped that the 'trolls' that she had met the night before might come back. Admittedly, she was absolutely terrified and yet she couldn't let herself struggle through her worries any longer. She had to receive answers.

"Blinky? Aaarrrgghh?" she spoke with slightly more force, "I'm here, the...trollhunter."

Nothing.

Nothing?

The amulet suddenly clattered in her hand.

"Hello?" she spoke to it (as if it could answer).  
The cogs and embellishments moved round and round like a clock, and the blue light seemed to glow even brighter than before. Like magic, symbols and words began to appear and disappear and reappear around the edge of the amulet. Eventually, they stopped. They stopped, and showed something in English. Something that Claire could read.

"For the glory of Merlin...daylight is mine to command," she whispered under her breath.

All of a sudden the world seemed to stop, and then fast forward. Leaves brushed through the sudden wind, and everything around her span. Yet all she could focus on was the amulet. The blue glow appeared to escape the object, in the form of a small smoky sphere of light. It flew around her like a fairy, and she couldn't draw her eyes away.

It was magical.

And then, it flew straight into Claire's chest, directly in the place of her heart. The amulet then suddenly gave out at least five more balls of light, each of which swiftly made their way to her chest.

And then, she flew. The blue smoke enveloped her, raising her into the air like a fairy herself. It span and wreathed like some kind of eruption of light. Suddenly, armour began to surround each of Claire's limbs, one by one. She would be scared - she should be scared - but instead she was captivated by what was going on around her.

Eventually, she was gently let back down to the ground. The armour was slightly too big for her (it looked like it was fit for, well, a troll) but it slowly closed itself in, making itself the perfect size for her.

She looked down on herself and gasped in astonishment. The armour was beautifully detailed in silver, and appeared like it was made for her. Her amulet was fitted perfectly in the left of her breastplate, and just as she gaped at it, more spheres of light were released. They made their way down to her hand and burst like a bomb of blue smoke and light. An extremely large sword materialised in her hands, and weighed down her entire body.

She grunted as it ever so slowly sized down, enough so that she could lift it and look at herself in the reflection.

"This is...wow."

She swung the sword behind her and posed. "I am the trollhunter...whatever that means."

-

Meanwhile, a car pulled up to the canal, its headlights striking the darkness like a knife.

A tall figure made its way down to the pile of stone underneath the bridge.

"It's been taken. You failed. You let it go. Your father will be displeased."

A much larger figure appeared behind him.

"Whoever holds the Amulet of Merlin, I shall destroy him, just as I have done with every single one of them."

"Worry not, you brute. I know where to find it. And rather than destroy him, you had better be preparing to destroy her."


End file.
